August 18, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
Exodus 20:1-6, Mathew 5:17-19

The essence of our focal passage today comes to us from Pastor Ron Mehl, as he writes in his book The Tender Commandments – Reflections on the Father’s love; “I am your God. I am your Redeemer: I have saved you and bought you for Myself. Please…don’t ever put anything in the place that belongs to me” (pg. 56-interpreting Exodus 20:1-6 for today). When it comes to our day to day living in relationship with God in Christ, the commandments are still very valid. It is recorded in Matthew 5:17 – 19, that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill them and that “anyone who breaks one of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven”.

I understand that in fulfilling the commandments of God, Jesus provides for us a way to draw closer to God through a growing relationship with the Son. Still, we realize that we are not “there” yet, and while we navigate our way day to day, we come up against some idols that threaten to steal our relationship. What might some of these idols be? Pastor Mehl puts it this way; “Today, these gods of materialism, sexual indulgence, and personal power fill the very airwaves! The images and their deceptive offers go across the world by satellite, cable, internet, and slick four-colored printing. We are surrounded by more images than we have ever been in the history of the world…the whole object is to ‘capture’ as many people as possible…When it becomes the whole purpose of my life to chase one of those images, I have already slipped into idolatry. I have given it the best of my time, my talents, my treasures, and my energies. My very life is invested in it. That’s what a god is; when you worship a god, you basically surrender your life to it” (pg.59).

Now there’s a word, surrender. Perhaps the greatest challenge I have in my day to day walk with the Lord, is to constantly surrender my will to his, my desires to his desires for my life, my rights to his righteousness. If you find yourself being challenged in a similar way today, perhaps this part of a famous hymn my help you stay on course: “All to thee, my blesses Savior, I surrender all” (I Surrender All, #354 The United Methodist Hymnal).

AMEN!

August 10, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
Exodus 20:3, Deuteronomy 5:7, Exodus 34:14

Question; When is being jealous a good thing? I’ve heard stories of young couples that experienced times when their relationship seemed to be waning and attempted to make each other jealous just to test if their relationship was worth the effort. I’m not convinced that would be a good thing. I’ve also experienced times when I was jealous that some other beauty caught my sweetheart’s eye. I remember when Mark and I were dating and were stationed together at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. There wasn’t much to do on base for dating couples, so we spent some evenings at the gym playing racquetball. One day as we were walking along, I noticed that a pretty young lady was leaving the gym and Mark turned his head to get a second look. Well, I just came alongside him and bluntly asked; “What does she have that I don’t twice as much of”? He answered straight away; “absolutely nothing”. Still, that type of jealousy wasn’t good for either of us.

The Bible tells us in Exodus 34:14; “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God”. One translation puts it this way; “Never worship any other god, because the Lord is a God who does not tolerate rivals. In fact, he is known for not tolerating rivals”. Question, as Ron Mehl puts it; “Why in the world does he [God] make such a point of having no other gods before Him? What does this first command have to do with life in today’s world? The reason is simple: He wants to be your God. He wants to care for you, and He knows that no one or nothing can care for you better than He. He is a faithful God, committed to us even when we fail, even when we make mistakes. He loves us, and He will never say, ‘I’m done with you. I am going to turn to someone else that I care about more than you’” (pg. 45 The Ten(der) Commandments).

A Pastor friend of mine puts it this way; “God loves me best”, and I agree, because after all, who could love me better? Keeping God first not only changes the way you live, but it impacts the way other people live. In our world today, people are more confused than ever and are in desperate need to know that God loves them best. When we catch hold of that, we can change the world.

AMEN

August 2, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
Psalm 1:1-3

Last week I was invited to join with our Hursttown church to celebrate a one day vacation bible school with the theme of the ten commandments of God. What fun to sing and dance to songs like “The Ten Commandment Boogie” and “This little light of mine”. We had a young group of kids who seemed genuinely interested in participating, especially when it came to pizza and cookie break time.

I was inspired a while ago to reinterpret the 10 commandments, which can be found in 3 places in the bible; Exodus 20, Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 5. The reinterpretation was my way of helping our grandkids to think about what God wants for us. At the risk of repeating a previous midweek posting, here’s my list as I hear God speaking to the children;

1 - Love God with all of yourself.
2 - Don’t worship anything or anyone else,
3 - Don’t use God’s name in a bad way.
4 - Remember to spend one day every week as a holy day for God.
5 - Respect your mommy and daddy.
6 - Don’t murder (Life is a precious gift from God).
7 - Be faithful to your husband or wife.
8 - Don’t take what does not belong to you.
9 - Don’t say bad things about other people.
10 -Don’t spend time wanting what other people have, be grateful for what you already have.

School has started, so I will have less time with our grandkids, but I hope to keep up the habit of encouraging them to share from bible memory verses and these commandments. I always get an uplift to my spirit when I hear sweet young voices speaking from God’s word. My oldest grandson taught me to read scriptures from a personal perspective. His life verse (as The Lord put on my heart is ) Psalm 1:1-3; “Blessed are you William, when you do not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But your delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law you meditate day and night. You will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, whatever you do will prosper.”

I encourage you to take some time every day to sit with God, read your bible and listen for the Holy Spirit to direct you to a verse to memorize. We have so many voices screaming at us in our world today to go this way or that way, to allow for everything and anything so as not to exclude anyone, to focus more on our rights and needs, you get the idea. How about becoming like a child in VBS again and read, sing, and celebrate the commands of God. Pastor and author Ron Mehl writes; “Oh, how we need God’s help! How we need God’s Spirit! How we need God’s loving guidelines. The truth is we need help beyond our age or experience” (The Ten(der) Commandments, Reflections on the Father’s Love pg.30).

AMEN

July 27, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
James 3:1-10

Self-Discipline, now here is a topic that rates high on everyone’s list when in casual conversation over a magnificent dinner, Not! Yet, it is part of the fruit of the Spirit that all believers are to endeavor to produce so as to encourage others to seek and find Christ.

The Message translation of a portion of our scripture for today puts it pretty well when considering the self-discipline of our words: “It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony into chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—It’s never been done [apart from Christ Jesus]. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongue we bless God our Father; with the same tongue we curse the very men and women he made in his image…”

Here’s a thought, what if each of us took some time every morning to ask the Holy Spirit to sweeten our words for the day with the fruit of self-discipline? Do you suppose we might be less inclined to use words that we might regret later, and more inclined to use words that build up another person? My husband of 36 years has been known to say “Not everything that pops up in your head needs to pop out of your mouth”, good advice, thanks honey. I found some inspiration from a little poem written by Louisa May Alcott, it is titled My Kingdom: “A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well. I do not ask for any crown but that which all may win; Nor try to conquer any world except the one within.”

AMEN!

July 20, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith

Text for Today: Titus 3:3-6 “Kindness is the fruit of the Spirit which primarily benefits others-people with whom we come in contact. And what a crying need there is for people to be kinder. [You could say in our day and time] we are experiencing a ‘kindness-famine’”(Nine Fruits of the Spirit by Robert Strand – Kindness pg.19).

The text I have chosen for our meditation today comes from a letter of Paul to Pastor Titus who is endeavoring to lead a newly formed church on the Island of Crete. It would seem that the people in this particular congregation are quite disorganized, self-centered, and undisciplined. The Apostle Paul encourages Pastor Titus to remember that at one time all believers were “foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures…But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior”.

As Christ followers, we are called by God to lead by example in being kind to everyone, even the people with whom we disagree, even those who seem bent on creating division. One of the ways I’ve been taught is in doing “random acts of kindness”; helping pay for someone’s meal, someone’s gas, stopping to encourage someone you notice is in distress, making that phone call you thought you didn’t have time to make. You get the idea . Many of you reading this have probably already taken the time to be kind in similar random acts of kindness or maybe, like me, you have been the recipient of such acts. Christ followers are driven by their love for God to share kindness everywhere we go, not to feel good about ourselves, though I do find I feel better about myself when I am kind, no, we are to be kind as a demonstration of our love for The Lord and as a relationship builder that may prove to be the beginning of someone’s journey of faith.

A while back I saw someone wearing a T shirt with this statement, and I close our time together with this thought: “If you can be anything, be kind”.

AMEN!

July 13, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
Galatians 5:22-26, Acts 10:34-38

Today we are going to sample the fruit of “Goodness”, number 6 in the list of the fruit of the Holy Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22-26. As we are reading from the New Testament, which was originally written in Greek, we can learn that the Greek word for “Goodness” is the word “Agathos”. This word; “Describes that which a person being good in character or constitution, will be beneficial in its effect on others” (Nine Fruits of the Spirit-Goodness pg. 9 by Robert Strand). With that explanation, we can see that Goodness is an active and productive characteristic of Christ-like living, or, Fruitful living.

Acts 10:34-38 tells us how Peter declares boldly the ministry of Jesus Christ; how “God anointed him with the power of the Holy Spirit, and how he went around doing good…”. When we are in relationship with Jesus Christ, we too, are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to “go around doing good”. Can you say with boldness, “I am living my life for goodness sake!” and by this mean that you are living for Jesus and his kingdom? I know I want to be more like him and a little less like me every day. Here is a little poem I found a couple of years ago that says it all pretty well.

The Goodness Creed [Edith calls it ; “Just A Little Bit”]

“Let me be a little kinder, let me be a little blinder to the faults of those about me; Let me praise a little more; Let me be, when I am weary, just a little bit more cheery; Think a little more of others and a little less of me. Let me be a little braver when temptation bids me waver; Let me strive a little harder to be all that I should be. Let me be a little meeker with the brother who is weaker; Let me think more of my neighbor and a little less of me. Let me be a little sweeter, make my life a bit completer, by doing what I should do every minute of the day. Let me toil without complaining, not a humble task disdaining; Let me face the summons calmly when death beckons me away”. (Author unknown)

AMEN

July 6, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
(Gal.5:22-23), Proverbs 17:22

This week my husband pulled out of the fruit bowl of the 9 Fruits of the Spirit the fruit of Joy. I read recently that there are over 200 references to joy, joyfulness, cheerfulness etc… in the bible and that brings a smile to my face . It can sometimes be challenging to maintain a joyful spirit when we hear and see so much trouble and pain that so many are facing. Still, I hear the Savior say; “Find in me thine all in all” (From the hymn Jesus Paid it All).

Proverbs 17:22 simply says; “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones”.

Perhaps this is the best prescription we could fill when it comes to dealing with the troubles we have to face in our world, in our communities, in our churches, in our homes, and most importantly in ourselves. In point of fact it has been said that a positive attitude and a good sense of humor can be very healing, even for physical ailments.

Another way I enjoy joy is in sharing from God’s word about how much he loves us all. Sometimes, I get carried away when using a funny illustration in my sermons. I can’t help it, God is good and people are funny. Just about the time I think I have gone too far, I read this about a marvelous clergyman whom I admire greatly, his name is Charles Spurgeon. I read where a woman in his congregation approached him to admonish him for his “too frequent expressions of joy and use of humor in his preaching. To which he replied, ‘madam, you should give me a medal for holding it back as much as I do’” (pg. 39 of Nine Fruits of the Spirit –Joy, by Robert Strand).

So, the next time you find yourself feeling overwhelmed and troubled, try taking a breath and remember; Jesus knows your every weakness and can calm every fear. Thank him and allow him to put the joy, joy, joy down in your heart.

AMEN

June 29, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith

As we work through the nine characteristics of being filled with the Holy Spirit, I am reminded again that my tree of faith needs constant attention. There are pests that want to infest. There are dry spells that require the water of the Word more intentionally. There are times of harvest when I need to pluck and share so that others can benefit and be encouraged.

Today, my husband Mark has chosen the fruit of faithfulness. In Galatians 5:22-23, it is listed as the seventh fruit and is bursting with meaning; “standing fast, steadfastness, loyal, devoted, tried, constant, reliable, unwavering, trustworthy, dependable, resolute, honest, punctual, and steady…It also speaks of endurance—a firmness of purpose, especially when the living is tough. It is a more than a ‘grin-and-bear-it’ kind of attitude” (Nine Fruits of the Spirit by Robert Strand, Faithfulness pgs. 9-10).

One of the more obvious ways faithfulness is demonstrated is in our day-to-day relationships with other people. People, by nature, seem to have a difficult time staying faithful. We drift in our commitment to God, and we become weak in our commitments to one another.

I sense in my own life, a greater awareness that I need to be more committed and grow my roots of faithfulness for my family, my congregations, my community and yes, myself. Perhaps you are sensing that too. Daily news broadcasts, blogs and articles and posts on the internet can often leave me feeling hopeless for authentic, faithful relationships to exist. Yet, I am wooed by God to his word and I find hope. It comes with singing; “I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself” (Psalm 89:1-2).

I love the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness, written by Thomas O. Chisolm in 1923: “Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee; thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not; as thou hast been, thou forever wilt be…” You might enjoy singing the chorus as you go about your day.

Be faithful.

AMEN!